Joy List Monday

Joy List Monday

♥ a weekly ritual ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces

that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ watching our one and only watermelon grow

 ♥ tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes 

 

♥ soaking in the last of summer.. 

as the colors in the garden turn to more oranges, yellows and purples

 

 ♥ celebrating a 70th birthday

and

 ♥ 50th wedding anniversary

 

Enjoy your week my friends.

This week Sam starts college classes. 

Next week Atticus starts his senior year of high school.

Labor Day Weekend is fast approaching, we are spending time with family and hanging on to summer!

I will be back soon!

♥

Carla

 

 

Making August Memories

 Last week was a week full of  garden activities. 

The Twilight Garden Tour is the North Country Master Gardeners BIG event. 

The above photo is my friend Carol kicking off the event.

We had the following line up for the event..

We will have speakers from University of Wisconsin including Brian Hudelson (Director of the UW-Madison Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic), Brian Smith (UW-River Falls Professor of Horticulture), and P.J. Liesch (Director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab) speaking about plant diseases, insects, and vegetable gardening.  There will also be displays and demonstrations including how to create a Monarch Waystation, getting your garden soil tested, wine tasting, and vegetable tastings.  The Spooner Garden Club, Barron County Master Gardener Volunteers, Cooperative Weed Management, Friends of the Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area, Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary, and our Kids in the Garden program will be among the organizations and programs represented.   

 The above photo is my partner in crime with putting on the Herb Demonstration. We had herb salts, herb sugar and herb infused water to try. 

I started some basil plants around July 4th and made up little pots of them to give away.

That is me in the below photo. 

It was a great evening, we had great weather and a fantastic turn out, the last I heard we were at 280 people! My garden group is a fun bunch of people. Not everything is perfect but we all work together to make it the best event we can. We were so pleased with how things went this season.

I enjoyed attending a Garden Tea last week as well. The month of August is time to show off our gardens, as everything is growing strong and many plants are blooming. And we have lots of fresh goodness to eat.

The presentation was on Herbs of the 18th Century, it was very interesting.

 My boys enjoyed a camp trip to my favorite lake, Lake Superior.

They sent me a photo of the view they had out the tent door.

 Sam brought me back some treasure, my favorite kind, beach glass and special rocks from the shores of my favorite lake.

  I found this acorn on my morning walk.. Autumn is whispering "Hello"

 This little guy was floating in the whiskey barrel pond with my fish.

"Summer was our best season: It was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat..."
 Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird 

Whiskey Barrel

 I always wanted to have a pond in our yard or garden. My husband and I did our best in thinking of how we could put one in. In doing our research we realized a real pond was not in our budget at this time.  I  recently attended an Adding Water to Your Garden workshop. I learned you do not need to go big to add a water feature to your garden.

 You do not need pumps and electricity. You do not need to dig huge holes and have liners.

All you need is a whiskey barrel or other fun containers to have a water feature.

 Creating a little water feature in the garden cost us a total of $95.00!

List of items..

whiskey barrel

galvanized bucket

raised bed garden soil

pond plant

fish

 I have added some more plants after I took these photos. I also added a lantern. I am looking for the perfect twinkle lights to add, I do need them to be solar if anyone has any good tips.

 The plants I started from seed or divided from plants in my other gardens.

The log fairy gardens I created and planted succulents with in the log.

I found the turtle shell on a spring walk. The turtle must have froze during our cold, cold winter. The shell was floating in the lake we take our daily walk along.

My boys helped me build the rock area of the garden. They also sifted out some gravel we had from another project for the bottom layer of the pond. I added some blue marbles, a pond plant and fish.

I am enjoying going out each day to check on my fish. We also had several comments from friends who have stopped by to see the garden, " how fun to have a little pond". I guess that would be right on since our garden is The Little Garden That Could.

Have a blessed weekend my friends.

I have seen some sightings of Autumn in the air in my neck of the woods. How about you?

 ♥

Carla

 

In the Garden

 Hello Friends,

The above garden is one of the gardens I helped design at the Teaching and Display Gardens with my Master Gardener Volunteer group.

The above is the Sunflower Patch that my friend Sheila and I designed.  Sheila's mom is our sweet model in the photo. 

We thought it would be fun to create a sunflower patch for families to take photos in among the sunflowers. The sunflowers are just starting to open in the photos.

 

This week we will be hosting our Twilight Garden Tour at the gardens.

 Annual Twilight Tour in the Teaching and Display Garden Tuesday, August 13, 4:00 to Twilight   Features guest speakers, demonstrations, displays, vegetable tastings

I also have two other garden events I will be attending and helping with this week.

So with all that this week I will be in the garden.. I will be back soon my friends.

Have a great week and come to the Twilight Tour if you are local or want to take a road trip to Wisconsin.

♥

Carla

 Photo Opportunity in the Sunflower Patch

Say "Sunflower"

For more information about the Teaching and Display Gardens 

click here. 

Visit the Teaching & Display Gardens

 Location

780 Orchard Lane
Spooner, WI  54801
715-635-3735

Orchard Lane is located 1.5 miles east of Spooner on State Highway 70 or 1/2 mile west of Highways 70/53 interchange. The Teaching and Display Gardens  are a joint effort between the Spooner Agriculture Research Station, operated by the University of Wisconsin - Madison College of Agriculture and Life Science, the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension and area UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteers.

Open to the public for self-guided tours during day light hours seven days a week mid-May through mid-September.

School.dle Doodles ~ Dreams Come True

For more information click here.

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ben_carson_490146?src=t_dreams

 Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.

Ben Carson

Dear friends of ours have started to raise Goldendoodles. This is a dream come true. With ups and downs as all dreams give us,  pressing on and not giving up when finding a mate for Winnie became a huge issue. Praying for hip and elbow tests to come out with flying colors. And much, much more!

We can give High Fives.. 

They have eight little pups ready for adoption. For more information and photos of the pups and family click on the link above.

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ben_carson_490146?src=t_dreams

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ben_carson_490146?src=t_dreams

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ben_carson_490146?src=t_dreams

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ben_carson_490146?src=t_dreams

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/dreams

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/dreams

Minneapolis Institute of Art.. part 2

 Charles M. Russell is my favorite Western artist. I find his work to be fascinating.

We did visit the C.M. Russell Museum located in Great Falls, Montana a few years ago.

I highly recommend visiting.

Click here to learn more.

 I was excited to see that MIA had two of Charles Russell on display.

to be continued..

Minneapolis Institute of Art .. part 1

 Minneapolis Institute of Art

 We enjoyed a full day visiting the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

If traveling to Minneapolis we recommend a visit to the museum. It is well done. 

 

 I am sharing a few of the works that I enjoyed. I will say a few, because I loved so many of the works that are on display, it was hard to decide what to share on The River. 

Let us get started..

Fra Angelica

My son Atticus studied Fra Angelico his 10th grade year in art class.  

It was fun to see his work on display.

 I was not able to capture the tear in this young ladies eye, but in person this work is very moving. It tells the story of Lucretia. She is the wife of a Roman nobleman, Lucretia was known for her loyalty and virtue. She was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the ruling tyrant. Lucretia revealed the crime to her husband and father, and in their presence, took her own life. She chose death in order to prevent dishonor, at a time and place when a woman's perceived virtue was more valuable than her life.

 I love the storm in this work.

 Vincent van Gogh

 

to be continued..